a city so beautiful.

around 300years back a beautiful city was born. born somewhere in the northern part of india. people from far places in europe and asia would come to see the manifestation of luxury in form of a city.

people should not confuse luxury with richness over here, there would have been much richer places in hindoostan at that point but lucknow was luxury.

luxury reflected from lucknow's architecture, lucknow's music, lucknow's cuisine, poetry, dance, air, water, lifestyle, fashion everything.

the city fell victim to it's own beauty. the warm welcoming city with its youth and energy kept attracting people of talent and skill to be a part of its own skin. the process never stopped. not yet.

one may still see the remnant of the nawabi attitude as the old man smokes his hukka in a dilapidated house which would have been a once been a mansion. just that over the years the mansion had been divided and sub-divided into smaller and much smaller housing units. outside it still reminds one of it's days of glory. inside lies reality. and the old man is far away from reality in his fantasy he still lives the life of the his forefathers.

standing on the rooftop of the house of my childhood i could see so much being stuffed under the skin of the city. so many people, so many houses, so many rickshaws, so many cars... it seems to create an ugly texture on the skin of once such a beautiful city. it seems there are lumps in the skin which are about to burst and some greyish fluid will ooze out.

i just hope one day the warts burst and all the ugly things flow away with the flowing water of the ever flowing gomti. and leaves behind the flawless luxurious lucknow. lucknow of my childhood.